Illustrator & Photoshop - Pantone FEE!

[FBz]

Perhaps yet another reason to stick with our older machines and software packages!

“Pantone requires a $15 monthly subscription to use its colors
in apps like Photoshop and Illustrator. Colors in old PSD files are turning
black for some.” - The Verge  11/01/2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/1/23434305/adobe-pantone-subscription-announcement-photoshop-illustrator

[teroyk]

I have seen already PDF:s that only has CMYK+color1+color2 and then in printing press choose inks for color1 and color2 as customers want.
Pantone system is not so good...it is just one of the color systems that is mostly used these days. I like LAB-colorspace system more.

[DrNo7]

Two unfortunate things with this news:

• the title is inaccurate bordering misleading: it is the rendering of some color that no longer happens in latest Photoshop and the age of files is irrelevant
• the behavior of Photoshop is shameful: they could have added a warning window to inform about color rendering and offered to either install the plugin and subscribe or convert the file to another color space (instead of letting it render black)

Yet it happens at a point in Photoshop history where it is almost a non-event: all the users that are not ATM already went for a plan B and those left do not care or are making money using this tool. But as usual, it is a shame they spent weeks or months debating about money behind the scene and nobody thought about the user experience 

[FBz]

Suggest reading of THIS entire article.

Chris Stokel-Walker / WIRED 11-2-2022
https://www.wired.com/story/adobe-pantone-color-subscription-fee/

Excerpts:

•Aaron Perzanowski, coauthor of The End of Ownership, researches intellectual and personal property law at the University of Michigan Law School. He says the standoff shows “how the shift from products to services erodes consumer ownership and puts us at the mercy of largely unaccountable companies.” He adds that Pantone has no underlying intellectual property rights when it comes to either individual colors, or the color libraries of which they are a part. “There’s no copyright protection available for individual colors, and the limited trademark rights for specific colors don’t apply here either,” Perzanowski says.

•Adobe spokesperson Erin Di Leva says that the company is “currently looking at ways to lessen the impact on our customers.” Iain Pike, senior global director of product and licensing at Pantone, says the company does not “determine the pricing, features, or user experience” offered by companies that use its color library, but that it collaborates with such companies “to create the best possible customer experience.”

•The problem is that most people who use Pantone colors use them because printers worldwide standardize the production of colors by using Pantone profiles. “I make a lot of screenprints,” says Semple. “I need a reliable reference for my printers to ensure we’re both talking about the same color.” And right now there’s no real alternative solution. It’s an industry standard. “I can have a manufacturer in the Far East making something and say, ‘The blue is 660c,’ and they know what I’m talking about,” says Semple, referring to the Pantone code for a Facebook-style blue color. “That’s the whole point.”


AND / OR / also… this from Gizmodo:
https://gizmodo.com/pantone-adobe-photoshop-15-color-charge-1849735487

[DieHard]

I posted this in the downloads last year, but I am not sure if it is of any use to anyone...

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,5726.0.html

[teroyk]

Speaking about "matching colors" then monitor should be calibrated. I know there should be many calibrators that work with Mac OS 9, because many QuarkXPress users calibrated their monitors. I know only this calibrator from Lacie:
https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Clibrator-107481-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B000087RYK
"The LaCie blue eye vision ships with calibration software for Mac OS 9"
Does somebody has that software?
btw..there is one for sale in ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125160395669
"I have no idea if this works.  Selling it as "parts only.""
I don't dare buy it without software for test.

But back to question: what calibrators works with Mac OS 9?

[peeperpc]

Speaking about "matching colors" then monitor should be calibrated. I know there should be many calibrators that work with Mac OS 9, because many QuarkXPress users calibrated their monitors. I know only this calibrator from Lacie:
https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Clibrator-107481-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B000087RYK
"The LaCie blue eye vision ships with calibration software for Mac OS 9"
Does somebody has that software?
btw..there is one for sale in ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125160395669
"I have no idea if this works.  Selling it as "parts only.""
I don't dare buy it without software for test.

But back to question: what calibrators works with Mac OS 9?

Since newer monitor calibration packages don't run on OS 9 anymore, I calibrate my monitor in OS X, save the monitor profile as ICC V2 then assign the profile onto a JPG image using Photoshop. Then, in OS 9, I drag the JPG file onto an AppleScript file named "Extract Profile" (Apple Extras > ColorSync Extras > AppleScript Files). The extracted profile can now be used as a monitor profile in OS 9.

PS: I think lut-based monitor profiles are also supported in OS 9 (matrix-based profile support is a given), as long as they are ICC V2.

[FBz]

Downloaded the FREETONE.ase file from https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/freetone (as mentioned in the Wired article noted above) and have only tried it in Photoshop CS6. Will eventually try in Illustrator and earlier versions of both Adobe software packages running under OS 9. It only provides 1280 “pantone-ish” colors AND it’s FREE. Have requested permission to upload it here - but no answer yet.

One need only to fill in some information as if purchasing it (no credit card info necessary) and then you can download the 177 KB file - and there’s also an instructional video to help you “install”. Again, I have not tried this on older versions of Photoshop or Illustrator under OS 9 (yet).

Here’s a bit of an example. Choosing a “SEMPLETONE 185 C” color from the swatch palette, I filled a small box in PShop. Then sampling that - PShop recognized it as identical to PANTONE 185 C.


*Image here is clickable for a larger view.

AND there’s a much larger image attached below: “Big-Semple” (16.75” x 14”) if you’re interested in seeing ALL of the FREETONE colors, plus those normally provided by basic Photoshop.

Wonder if there’s any way to add the FREETONE colors into Photoshop’s Color Libraries (as an .acb file) instead of as swatches?  / Use in Illustrator seems a bit more straightforward, per that video.

Check it out. Might just be a very viable workaround for some "creative types". 

[Muppet Labs]

Adobe fuckery for sure, as all the Affinity apps still have their Pantone libraries.

Having known people who worked for Adobe, this could be because of the the company's general dysfunction. All of the different apps run in their own silos, which is why the UI isn't uniform across apps, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Illustrator people desperately want the Pantone books to be included, the Photoshop people don't care, and the bean counters saw an opportunity to squeeze some money out of Pantone.

[ssp3]

Wonder if there’s any way to add the FREETONE colors into Photoshop’s Color Libraries (as an .acb file) instead of as swatches?

What's wrong with using original Pantone libs? 

https://github.com/Autocrit/Pantone-color-libraries

[ssp3]

But back to question: what calibrators works with Mac OS 9?

With all available software - GretagMacbeth (x-Rite) i1Pro spectrophotometer. But not i1Pro OEM'ed for EFI (custom firmware).
About 1Pro2 I'm not sure. Most probably not, since it's too modern.
Also, depending on software, a whole bunch of colorimeters - various Spyders, i1Display etc, but don't waste your money on them, they are toys compared to i1Pro and might be either dead by now or deteriorated and will produce measurement errors.

I posted in 2018 about similar subject in this same forum. Here's an update re. software that I mentioned in that thread:
1. Serial# for Quato iColor Display 2.5.4 is in the SerialSeeker.
2. It turns out that Profile Maker 5.0 works in OS9 too! It just needs to be installed+patch applied on OSX and then moved over to OS9.
IIRC, it needs to be moved out of OSX package too. A copy could be traced down using usual methods 

[ssp3]

Follow up, FYI.

Quato software was made by German company ColorLogic, whose founder is also a creator of Profile Maker for GretagMacbeth. ColorLogic also made display calibration software for basICColor and LaCie (OEM).
That's why interfaces/functions of Quato iColor display and basICColor display look so similar. LaCie blue eye pro even has some windows similar to those in Profile Maker.
Full blown versions of Quato iColor display and LaCie have UGRA display validation option, which is slightly scaled down version of UGRA's UDACT display certification software (now discontinued), which also was made by ..... ColorLogic.

Quato links:

http://web.archive.org/web/20120712014836/http://www.quato.de/english/software-display.php

Whole directory. Version 2.5.4 and some other goodies could only be found this way:

web.archive.org/web/*/http://quato.de:80/software/*